MIAMI, 12 JANUARY, 2023 — Motorsport Games Inc. (NASDAQ: MSGM) (“Motorsport Games” or the “Company”) today announced the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual, the esports finale to the ever-entertaining Le Mans Virtual Series, takes place this weekend on January 14 and 15, 2023. The all-star entry list has attracted the interest of major broadcasters from around the globe including Motor Trend On Demand in North America, CNBC Pan Latin America and Pan Europe, Eurosport Player across Europe and M-Net SuperSport in the Sub-Saharan regions of Africa. With broadcasters streaming the event digitally through OTT platforms and on demand services, this exciting and extremely popular esports discipline will be available to millions of homes across the world.
The event features motorsport and esports champions from all four corners of the world, including Formula One Champion Max Verstappen, who will be racing from Monaco, Formula 2 Champion Felipe Drugovich in Brazil and Formula 3 Champion Victor Martins in France, who will join IndyCar’s Romain Grosjean and Felix Rosenqvist, plus a host of real world and esports racing stars ready to take on the world’s greatest virtual endurance race.
The storied Silverstone racing track in the UK will be the host venue for a special, live TV show covering this unique two-day event, and the studio will welcome an expert commentary team made up of FIA World Endurance Championship lead commentator Martin Haven, real world racing and esports experts Chris McCarthy and Lewis McGlade, plus highly experienced motorsport commentator Ben Constanduros. A number of “pitlane” reporters will be based around the world to capture interviews and live action including Hayley Edmonds in Paris and current WEC competitor, 2020 Le Mans Virtual driver and FIA F2 and F3 commentator Alex Brundle in the UK.
The 180 competitors – representing 41 different nationalities – piloting the 45 cars (4 drivers in each car in rotation over the 24 hours) will be located on 164 different simulators across the world, and the digital interest from a wide variety of international broadcasters fully reflects the spread of drivers and teams.
Eurosport will cover the full 2-day event live throughout its European regions on Eurosport Player, and global coverage will be on Motorsport.tv. With a large number of successful esports racers hailing from Eastern Europe, the twice-round-the-clock event will be shown live in Croatia (Max Sport), Poland (Motowizja FB and SportKlub), Slovakia (Arena) and Ukraine (Sports TV Ch2), while countries such as Malta (TVMSports+) and Turkey (BeIN) will also broadcast live coverage.
Motor Trend will cover the full race live in North America on its OTT service, while TYC in Mexico will show the first and last hour of the event within the populous country. Mnet SuperSport and Africa XP will take the broadcast live across Sub-Saharan and Pan-Africa regions, thus extending the coverage to four continents around the world. Finally, live coverage will be aired in Fiji (FBC) and Singapore (delayed) on Singtel.
In addition to the live airings above, a wide range of territories will show a special 52-minute highlights show after the event, and information about these broadcasters including CNBC, Disney/Fox in China and Sport 1 in India will be communicated in due course.
The ACO and FIA WEC’s official YouTube and social media channels will be showing all the action live from start to finish, as will the Le Mans Virtual Series official website (www.lemansvirtual.com). The broadcast begins at 12:15 GMT (13:15 CET/07:15 EST) and the famous French national flag will be dropped for the start of the biggest endurance esports event of the year at 13:00 GMT (8:00 EST / 14:00 CET).
Round 1 8 Hours of Bahrain, Bahrain 17 September, 2022
Round 2 4 Hours of Monza, Italy 8 October, 2022
Round 3 6 Hours of Spa, Belgium 5 November, 2022
Round 4 500 Miles of Sebring, USA 3 December, 2022
Round 5 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual 14-15 January, 2023
About Le Mans Virtual Series
Le Mans Virtual Series is a global, elite esports series made up of five rounds which bring together endurance racing and sim racing’ top teams to compete on some of the world’s most famous racetracks. International FIA-licensed real-world drivers are teamed up with elite esports squads to take on endurance classics for a total prize fund of US$250,000, culminating in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual. Le Mans Virtual Series is a joint venture between leading racing game developer, publisher and esports ecosystem provider of official motorsport racing series throughout the world, Motorsport Games, and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) - the creator and organizer of the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans and promoter of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC).
About Motorsport Games:
Motorsport Games, a Motorsport Network company, is a leading racing game developer, publisher and esports ecosystem provider of official motorsport racing series throughout the world. Combining innovative and engaging video games with exciting esports competitions and content for racing fans and gamers, Motorsport Games strives to make the joy of racing accessible to everyone. The Company is the officially licensed video game developer and publisher for iconic motorsport racing series across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and mobile, including NASCAR, INDYCAR, 24 Hours of Le Mans and the British Touring Car Championship (“BTCC”), as well as the industry leading rFactor 2 and KartKraft simulations. rFactor 2 also serves as the official sim racing platform of Formula E, while also powering F1 Arcade through a partnership with Kindred Concepts. Motorsport Games is an award-winning esports partner of choice for 24 Hours of Le Mans, Formula E, BTCC, the FIA World Rallycross Championship and the eNASCAR Heat Pro League, among others. Motorsport Games is building a virtual racing ecosystem where each product drives excitement, every esports event is an adventure and every story inspires.
